Along the North Korean Border

With much of the world’s attention once again focused on North Korea, many international photojournalists are doing their best to cover the reclusive country. However, North Korea still tightly restricts the movements of visiting journalists within its borders, and controls what can be photographed. For photographers looking in from just over the border, there may be more freedom of movement, but the subjects in North Korea are aware they are being watched, with many looking back—sometimes giving a smile and wave, or sometimes throwing rocks. Gathered here are photographs from the past few years of North Koreans seen just over the border from parts of China and South Korea.

A North Korean soldier looks out the window of a guard tower, on the banks of Yalu River, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, on April 16, 2013.#

A woman reads messages on ribbons visitors left to make their wishes for the reunification of the two Koreas, at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, on April 7, 2013.#

North (right) and South Korean soldiers look at each other through a window of a conference room in the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission Conference Building at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, on March 30, 2016.#

A North Korean village in Kaepoong county, on the north side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, and a South Korean guard post (bottom) are seen in this picture taken from south of the DMZ in Paju, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Seoul, on December 22, 2010.#

Snowmelt and last week’s “bomb cyclone” have overwhelmed rivers in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and neighboring states, causing widespread flooding that has broken dozens of records and cost at least three lives.